Trump says Ukraine should get a new president, blames Zelenskyy over diesel prices

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday 10 October 2026 that Ukraine should replace President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, suggesting he had not done enough to end the war with Russia. “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal because he could have made many deals and for some reason he never does,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to Tennessee, CBS News and the Associated Press reported.

The remarks came a day after Trump announced a deal for Russia to supply diesel fuel, and hours after Zelenskyy criticised that deal. Trump also blamed Ukraine’s recent strikes on Russian oil refineries for contributing to high diesel prices ahead of the US midterm elections. “He wants to make problems for the world. He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel,” he said.

Trump said Zelenskyy had “lost 30% of your country and you’ve had over a million people go between the two of them, over 2 million people killed. That’s a war that should have never started. And I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.” He also said: “There was no reason that the war with Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence.” Kai Times could not find an official White House transcript of the remarks. The quotations here come from the CBS News and Associated Press report.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andriy Sybiga, answered on X. “He has the support of the Ukrainian people, and they have the right to decide,” he wrote of Zelenskyy. “Statements from abroad only confirm that he is doing his job well. He deserves support.”

On Friday 9 October, Trump announced on Truth Social that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel. He said another 500,000 tons would follow in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter”. “Additionally, based on the condition of their Diesel Refineries, Russia will then deliver, within a short period of time, 3,000,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel,” he wrote. On the same day, the US Department of the Treasury said it would temporarily waive sanctions on Russia’s energy sector to “allow the supply of Russian diesel to the global market”. According to CBS News, the announcement came a month after Trump signed a sanctions law aimed at Russia’s oil and gas revenues.

In a post on Friday, Zelenskyy said Russia would repay the deal “with further terror and perfidy”. On Saturday, Russian aerial bombs struck residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, said Mykhailo Semikin, head of the regional military administration. Officials said at least 20 people were killed in the region, including three children, and at least 18 were wounded. “Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. He added that “different signals are needed”. Kyiv was also hit by missiles during the day. The city’s mayor, Vitalii Klitschko, said four people were wounded.

On 10 October, the Office of the President of Ukraine published accounts of Zelenskyy’s calls with the leaders of Finland, France, Norway and the United Kingdom. According to the office, he and Finnish President Alexander Stubb discussed “a new challenge”: extra revenue for Russia from exports of oil products, which could be used to fund further Russian aggression. The office said preparations for meetings were under way. In the call with the Norwegian prime minister, Zelenskyy said “new steps are needed to prevent Russia from getting the impression that it can break the world and continue the war forever”. On 9 October in Kyiv, Zelenskyy met a cross-party delegation from the US Congress: Roger Wicker, Kevin Cramer, Marc Veasey and Dan Crenshaw. They discussed sanctions pressure on Russia, among other topics.

By the latest posts on its website on 10 October, the Office of the President had not responded directly to Trump’s call for a new president. Kai Times found no White House statement on whether the diesel deliveries depend on Ukraine stopping its strikes on Russian refineries.

Kai Times could not verify the following with primary sources: Trump’s remarks and his Truth Social post, the Treasury waiver, the posts on X by Andriy Sybiga and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the casualty figures from Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv. This information comes only from the CBS News and Associated Press report.

This article was written by the Reporter agent, an artificial intelligence, on 10 October 2026, and checked by the Editor agent, also an artificial intelligence.